|
Main
- books.jibble.org
My Books
- IRC Hacks
Misc. Articles
- Meaning of Jibble
- M4 Su Doku
- Computer Scrapbooking
- Setting up Java
- Bootable Java
- Cookies in Java
- Dynamic Graphs
- Social Shakespeare
External Links
- Paul Mutton
- Jibble Photo Gallery
- Jibble Forums
- Google Landmarks
- Jibble Shop
- Free Books
- Intershot Ltd
|
books.jibble.org
Previous Page
| Next Page
Page 18
"That," he answered, "I am quite equal to."
Haflidi then went to the sailors and said: "You have much toil;
and it seems that you don't get on with Grettir."
"His lampoons," they answered, "annoy us more than anything
else."
Then Haflidi, speaking loud, said: "It will be the worse for him
some day."
Grettir, when he heard himself being denounced, spoke a verse:
"Other the words that Haflidi spake
when he dined on curds at Reydarfell.
But now two meals a day he takes
in the steed of the bays mid foreland shores."
The sailors were very angry and said he should not lampoon
Haflidi for nothing. Haflidi said: "Grettir certainly deserves
that you should take him down a little, but I am not going to
risk my good name because of his ill-temper and caprice. This is
not the time to pay him out, when we are all in such danger.
When you get on shore you can remember it if you like."
"Shall we not endure what you can endure?" they said. "Why
should a lampoon hurt us more than it does you?"
Haflidi said so it should be, and after that they cared less
about Grettir's lampoons.
The voyage was long and fatiguing. The ship sprung a leak, and
the men began to be worn out. The mate's young wife was in the
habit of stitching Grettir's sleeves for him, and the men used to
banter him about it. Haflidi went up to Grettir where he was
lying and said:
"Arise from thy den! deep furrows we plough!
Remember the word thou didst speak to the fair.
Thy garment she sewed; but now she commands
that thou join in the toil while the land is afar."
Grettir got up at once and said:
"I will rise, though the ship be heavily rolling.
The woman is vexed that I sleep in my den.
She will surely be wrath if here I abide
while others are toiling at work that is mine."
Then he hurried aft where they were baling and asked what they
wanted him to do. They said he would do little good. He
replied: "A man's help is something." Haflidi told them not to
refuse his help. "Maybe," he said, "he is thinking of loosening
his hands if he offers his services."
In those days in sea-going ships there were no scuppers for
baling; they only had what is called bucket or pot-baling, a very
troublesome and fatiguing process. There were two buckets, one
of which went down while the other came up. The men told Grettir
to take the buckets down, and said they would try what he could
do. He said the less tried the better, and went below and filled
his bucket. There were two men above to empty the buckets as he
handed them. Before long they both gave in from fatigue. Then
four others took their places, but the same thing happened. Some
say that before they were done eight men were engaged in emptying
the buckets for him. At last the ship was baled dry. After
this, the seamen altered their behaviour towards Grettir, for
they realised the strength which was in him. From that time on
he was ever the forwardest to help wherever he was required.
They now held an easterly course out to sea. It was very dark.
One night when they least expected it, they struck a rock and the
lower part of the ship began to fill. The boats were got out and
the women put into them with all the loose property. There was
an island a little way off, whither they carried as much of their
property as they could get off in the night. When the day broke,
they began to ask where they were. Some of them who had been
about the country before recognised the coast of Sunnmore in
Norway. There was an island lying a little off the mainland
called Haramarsey, with a large settlement and a farm belonging
to the Landman on it.
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
|